Scripture: Mark 1:21-45
Introduction
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” – Matthew16:24-25
- Are you sure want to follow Jesus? Jesus did a lot of things that were not comfortable.
- Last week we asked the question: “what are you willing to give up?”
- Reading a little further into Mark’s Gospel reveals the amazing depth of Jesus’s ministry.
- The rest of the chapter picks up from last week and describes His immediate next steps.
- To say that He hit the ground running is to hugely underestimate His efforts.
- Clearly, He came to work and work hard.
- We’re no strangers to hard work here at Biltmore and I am certain Jesus is proud of us.
- I know this because I see evidence of it all around me. God is rewarding us every day.
- God doesn’t reward bad behavior – that’s the enemy’s territory.
- To follow Jesus means to take the hard road – not the easy way.
- My nature is to be lazy and procrastinate and then step up and do the things I have to do.
- I don’t go looking for work unless it is part of something bigger that I want to accomplish
- I have chosen to follow Jesus and I am trying hard, but I know I need to try harder.
- If you are going to follow Jesus, you need to know what following Jesus looks like. There were three things in today’s Scripture that Jesus focused on:
- Demons
- Prayer
- Healing
1. Demons
- This is a topic that makes most modern-day Christians uncomfortable.
- Do any of us even understand what it means to drive out demons?
- It must have been a real thing because it gets a lot of air play in the Bible.
- It might be easier to process if we stop and think about what a demon is.
- Anybody want to take a stab at what a demon is? Unclean spirit, opposite of an angel
- The best source of explanation comes from Revelation 12:3-4, 7-9:
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
- Based on this passage, it is interpreted to mean that 1/3 of the angels in heaven fell to earth with Satan.
- The most effective tool that the enemy, Satan, has in his arsenal is that he doesn’t exist.
- He exists and the angels that fell with him came willingly because they believed in him.
- When Lucifer was in heaven before the fall, he was a rock star; he was the musical leader
- Isaiah refers to him glowingly in 14:12:
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
- I think it is fair to assume that there are a lot of demons working on earth.
- One clue is Mark 5:6-13:
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
- Legion is a Roman military term that referred to thousands of men.
- Satan is jealous of God and covets His position to his own destruction.
- We can see Lucifer’s ambition in Isaiah 14:13-14:
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
- Since he can’t have what God has, he is bent on destroying God’s creation – us humans.
- And clearly, he has lots of help.
- We can’t see the demons that cling to us and torment us and generally wear us down.
- Maybe there’s one; maybe there’s more; maybe there are thousands.
- All we can see is the damage they are doing.
- What do you think some modern-day symptoms of demon-oppression are? Addiction, evil behavior, mental issues.
- 2000 years ago, Jesus made a priority out of removing demons from people.
- Even if we can’t take on casting out demons, we can be aware that this is going on.
- We can at least develop compassion for the many demon-oppressed people around us.
- Gauging by the rising amount of evil in our world, I’d say the demons are successful.
2. Prayer
- The next big thing that Jesus focused on was prayer; He prayed continuously.
- Did He really need to get down on His knees or pray out loud?
- I dunno; maybe that was more for our benefit.
- You would think He would just pray supernaturally; on a private God-channel.
- The text says that He went off to a solitary place to pray.
- The disciples had to go looking for Him to tell Him he was in demand.
- How many times do we get distracted by all the things around us?
- There’s always something else to do; always things and people placing demands on us.
- I think it is important that we schedule a prayer time on Wednesday nights.
- An interesting development from Jesus’ prayer time was a strategic pivot in His process.
- Verses 38 and 39 describe the results of His prayer and shifting plans:
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So, he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
- Prayer was a key component to Jesus’ process.
- Prayer helped Jesus to stay focused on His mission and stay effective and efficient.
- When you think a out how much Jesus accomplished in only three years it makes sense.
- I wonder if we could do that in our lives?
- Could our lives be simpler and easier if we used prayer and let it guide us?
- If we want to follow Jesus, than we need to seriously amp up our prayer efforts.
3. Healing
- I mentioned last week that we knew Simon Peter was married from verses 30-31:
Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So, he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.
- Wasn’t it nice of them to get her healed quickly so she could wait on them?
- Jesus went about healing everyone in the town that came to Him.
- Mark calls out one special case of a man with leprosy.
- This is significant because a leper would have been considered unclean and Jesus was violating all kinds of religious protocol by even getting near him.
- In this translation it says Jesus was indignant in verse 41, but the King James version translates it as “And Jesus, moved with compassion…” Not indignance.
- Jesus healed him then sent him away with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone.”
- The one that Jesus DID want him to do was to follow protocol and tell the priest and offer the appropriate sacrifices.
- In this way, Jesus not only healed, but this would reinstate him as no longer unclean.
- Of course, did the man do what Jesus told him? NO, he blabbed to everybody.
- “Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news.”
- This made the demand on Jesus even stronger and, “Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. “
- This didn’t slow down demand because people still came to Him from everywhere.
- I believe that people can still heal others today, I just don’t anyone who can.
- But there are ways in which we can help heal people who we come into contact with.
- We can help by healing their pain by listening to them (even if they’re a little crazy)
- We can help by showing them love and compassion.
- We can help by sharing clothing, food and encouragement.
- Jesus is a tough act to follow, but He wants us to try – just like with His first disciples.
- Satan is real and demons are real and there are a lot of them – we need to be aware and compassionate towards people who are tormented by them.
- Prayer is the key to everything as Jesus demonstrated,
- And healing begins with love and compassion.